L.A. Fashion Week Spring '07: Erica Davies

Erica Davies previewed her Spring 2007 collection with a runway show and trunk show at Iconology, the new boutique on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles. The former creative director for Richard Tyler’s diffusion line, Tyler, and designer for Sportmax has been busy as of late with her new dual role as head designer for Development and her eponymous designer collection. Davies said she hadn’t originally planned to have a show in Los Angeles, but was intrigued by doing a trunk show at Iconology. Somehow the show evolved into an intimate runway presentation on Oct. 17. The sidewalk outside of the boutique was transformed into a runway.

Sheltered by a tent, lined with chairs and strewn with sand and desert vegetation, the runway replicated the look of the designer’s recent look book, shot in Palm Springs. The designer said her collection was inspired by Man Ray’s photographs from the 1930s, the artist’s odd sensibility toward women and the cubist art of the time period. The collection of bohemian dresses ranged from short bubble shapes to long elegant silhouettes featuring Davies’ original prints with a mix of waterlilies, fans and zig-zag shapes. Fabrics in silk voile and silk jersey came in an eclectic palette of raspberry, steel, coral, eggplant and emerald balanced with neutral beige, ivory and stone. “It was almost like I threw myself into a melting pot of colors,” said Davies. —N. Jayne Seward